It is widely known that easily accessible resources of fossil fuels are declining. In addition, the impact of the use of fossil fuels upon the environment has become increasingly apparent. As a result of this, it has become imperative that viable alternative energy sources are used as effectively and efficiently as possible. The use of turbines to capture the power of water flow, such as tidal, river and ocean current flows is becoming a viable source of alternative energy. The turbine equipment used to capture such water flow energy typically includes a shaft driven generator connected using a drivetrain to a rotor assembly. The rotor assembly includes a plurality of rotor blades that are driven by the water flow, so as to turn an input shaft of the drivetrain.
In order to be economically practical, multiple water current turbine devices need to be deployed in a suitable area. For example, a tidal turbine farm may have tens to hundreds of turbines. The turbines are preferably arranged in an array having multiple rows of multiple turbines. The turbine array could be deployed in a tidal flow area, a river flow, an ocean current, or any other suitable water current area. Although it is preferable for the turbines to be arranged in an array, geography, bathymetry and other factors may mean that a turbine farm has another arrangement.
Such turbine equipment needs to be secured to the bed of a body of water, such as a sea, estuary or river. Conventional underwater turbines used to drive electrical generators are mounted on a horizontal rotational axis and require a significant amount of ancillary features, in order to maximise energy capture. One such feature that is essential for efficient energy generation is yaw capability: it must be possible to direct the turbine to the most effective orientation with respect to the direction of current flow at any particular time.
Installation, maintenance and servicing of underwater power generation apparatus, particularly in deep sea environments, are highly costly and time consuming procedures. It is therefore desirable to simplify the construction and deployment of underwater power generation apparatus, lowering capital cost and reducing the frequency with which in service intervention is required.